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Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 586930
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/586930
NC82 4 SUISGILL NC/8875 2530
This probable broch in Kildonan, Suth-erland, stands about 0.75 miles above the junction of the Suisgill burn and the river Helmsdale and on the summit of a mound 9.2m (30ft) above the river. It is in the centre of the pass at a narrow point of the Strath. This broch seems to have been much better preserved 250 years ago. The Rev. Alexander Pope, in discussing the “Pictish” buildings of the north of Scotland in 1774, says –
"There is one of them entire in the parish of Loth" (probably NC90 1, Kintradwell). "It is the only one that is, as far as I could find, excepting one at Suisgill in the parish of Kildonan." [3].
Little of the broch is left – much of the wall having been removed at about 1909 [2] – and the north wall has disappeared entirely. The remains of a mural cell are visible on the south and there are no signs of the entrance. The interior diameter is about 12.2m (40ft), the wall on the north is 4.58m (15ft) thick and 3.7m (12ft) thick on the south (the river side). In 1985 signs of a mural gallery about 0.9 m wide were seen on the south-east side [4].
There are massive outer defences on the level approaches to the site on the west, north and east [4], which “bear a close resemblance to those of the neighbouring broch of Kilphedir” (NC91 7) [2, 105]. These are most complex on the east, away from the river, and consist of three ramparts with two deep ditches between them starting about 5.49m (18ft) from the broch. On the north there is a single rampart with a gap, perhaps recent, through it on the north-east [4]. The original entrance through these outer defences is on the south-east, between the steep drop to the river and the eastern defences; it is defended by a forework mound 3.7m (12ft) wide and 8.5m (28ft) further out. The innermost rampart appears to surround the broch completely [4].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NC 82 NE 12: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 105, no. 308: 3. Pope 1774, 318 - 19 4. Swanson (ms) 1985, 800-801 and plan: 5. RCAHMS 1993.
E W MacKie 2007
